Seeking for the help of the Lord, I direct your prayer for attention to 1 John chapter 3 and reading from our text, verse 16. Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

We have a similar word in the fourth chapter and verse nine. In this was manifested the love of God toward us because that God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him. In that verse, the love of God is manifested toward us or made apparent In our text, we perceive that love of God toward us. We sang in our hymn, the last verse of it. Adopted sons perceive their kindred to the sky. The father's pardoning love receive an abba father crying.

So it is the perception that we are of the Lord that I want to speak of this evening. By nature we are not really concerned at all whether we are the Lord's people or not and it's a great thing when God first makes it of concern to us and we begin to seek the Lord and begin to want to know that we are the Lord's and our sins are put away and that we shall be with the Lord. when time shall be no more for us. But how can we know? And there may be those of you here thinking, how can I know that I am one of the Lords? And it may be, depending on how we've been brought up, or perhaps what experiences we've heard from others, or what preaching we've heard, that we've got different ideas or views thinking of how it is that the Lord will bless us.

We think of how it was with Naaman the Syrian, when the maid said to him, who was a leper, that if he were to go to the prophet that was in Samaria, then he would be healed of his leprosy. Well, first he went to the king, and then had to be directed to the prophet. So he got that part wrong, first going to the king. And then when the prophet just sent out a servant and said to him to go and to wash, dip himself seven times in Jordan, he was offended.

He said, I thought surely that he would come out, that he would call upon the name of his God, do something dramatic and he was angry because it was not done as he thought it should have been done. And yet his own servants then reasoned with him. If the Prophet had bid him do some great thing, Elisha had bid him do some great thing, would he not have done it? How much some simple thing And they calmed his anger.

And he went down to Jordan, did as was bid, and came again, clean again, rejoicing and with thanks. But first he needed to have that idea that he had, that which he was going to hold fast on and would rather not be healed because it wasn't in his way.

And we can be like that as well. We can have this fixed idea. This is how the Lord will work. This is how he will appear. We can do it in providence as well. We can do it in many ways. And it's good to be mindful of how the scriptures set before us those marks of God's people. And of course, again, that does vary.

Some of the Lord's dear people have been greatly blessed and favoured in their souls and from that one blessing have had no doubt whose they are and what the Lord has wrought in them. Others it is much more gentle, much more gradual. And this is what is on my spirit here this evening, that which is a way of perceiving.

Our text says, Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. If we perceive something, we understand or interpret in a specific way things that are based on observation rather than objective fact, rather than something being specifically told us. We just come to understand it by perhaps a whole lot of different events, different providences, ways the Lord has dealt with us. Perception is a scriptural way of realizing that the Lord does love us and that he has laid down his life for us. This then is our text.

Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. So on to look at three points. Firstly, perception, a scriptural way of knowing we are the Lords. And then secondly, how God's people are to perceive the love of God toward them. There's one thing to say that The Lord laid down his life, but we need to know it was for us and to perceive that love of God to us. And then thirdly, a further way of assuring our hearts that we are God's people is in the latter part of the text, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But firstly, the way of perception as being a scriptural way.

King David, as recorded in 2 Samuel, 2 Samuel chapter 5 and verse 12, he was anointed while young, perhaps in his late teens, to be the king over Israel. But it was to be many years, 10, 15 years before he actually became the king, and all that time pursued by King Saul. But then it came the time that he was to be king, and we read in 2 Samuel chapter 5 and verse 12, that David perceived that the Lord had established him king over Israel and that he had exalted his kingdom for his people Israel's sake. And it was because of what the Lord had done that the Lord had removed King Saul He had given David favor in the eyes of the people to reign not only over Judah, but over all Israel, and also given favor with the kings round about him, Hiram king of Tyre, who had given him cedar trees, carpenters, masons. They built David a house. And David was then viewing these things that had happened And he perceives from that the Lord had established him king over Israel. Couldn't the Lord have said to him, David, I have established you as the king over Israel?

He could have. He could have spoken to him of it. But instead, by the things that happened, the events that came to pass, He was able to put these things together and come to one conclusion. This was the Lord's doing. And there are those in scripture that have been able to see like it was with Abraham's servant going to seek a wife for Isaac. That then when he is prayed and the prayer is answered and he goes before Laban and Bethuel, and they say the thing proceedeth from the Lord. They realize by the prayer, the answer to prayer, the providences, that this was the Lord's doing. And it's good for us as well to realize this way, this scriptural way of perceiving the Lord's work and favor towards us. We think of another case with Samuel, when he was a child there in the temple, and we read that Samuel did not yet know the Lord. How was he to know the Lord? Well, the Lord came to him and began to speak to him. He called his name, Samuel, Samuel. And Samuel thought it was Eli's voice.

So he goes to Eli and says, thou didst call me. But Eli says, no, I didn't. You go down again. And it happens again. And then Eli perceived that it was the Lord that had spoken to Samuel. So the Lord didn't say to Eli, I am calling Samuel. I am speaking to Samuel. The Lord didn't come to Samuel and say, I am the Lord, Samuel. He just called his name. You see how it could have been a lot more direct, but it was left for Eli to perceive it, to realize he wasn't the one that was calling, there was no one else there, and this calling by name again and again, this was the Lord. And so he directed Samuel when he comes again, Then say, speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth. Dear Samuel, he left out the Lord.

He says, speak for thy servant heareth. But the Lord then appeared to him, spoke to him, gave him a prophecy concerning Eli and his house that exactly matched a previous prophecy from another prophet that Eli had had. And in the morning when Eli wanted to hear exactly what the Lord had said, he told him everything, and of course it matched. He was sealed then as one of the Lord's servants. What he said matched another of the Lord's servants. At the end of, I think, chapter three, we read that the Lord appeared again unto Samuel by the word of the Lord. That's how the Lord appeared. to Samuel and he appears to his people today by the word of the Lord.

And all of God's people, they come from not knowing the voice of the Lord to knowing his voice. They come from not recognising him to be under my sheep, they hear my voice and they follow me. And there's a time when they first perceive and realise This is the Lord speaking through the ministry, through the word of God. This is his word to me. Our Lord spoke in parables when he was upon the earth.

And we read, without a parable spake he not unto them. Mark chapter four. we read of when he explained to the twelve when they asked him of the parables and this was the parable of the sower which we had this morning and he says but unto them he says unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of god but unto them that are without all these things are done in parables that seeing they may see and not perceive and hearing they may hear and not understand, lest at any time they should be converted and their sins should be forgiven them."

And so they hear these parables, they hear the natural story with the spiritual meaning, but they don't perceive that there is more in it, they don't perceive and think There is further teaching and instruction in this. So off they go, and they don't see. They hear outwardly, but they don't hear spiritually. And they don't perceive. That seeing they may see and not perceive. And hearing they may hear and not understand.

So it's a blessing to perceive, to actually realize that here the Lord is speaking, here is spiritual instruction, here is something that the Lord would have me to know. And in this case with the parables, others, they do not pick it up, they do not know.

And so don't pass over where the Lord gives you to perceive. where you have perhaps a number of things and we'll look at these things in a moment and don't think well I've got it in my mind this is how I shall know the Lord's blessing this is how I shall know I'm the Lord's people when the Lord may already have been given one thing after another and you see it as from the Lord and you begin to understand, begin to realize that this is the Lord's doing, that He has a favor towards you, He has a love towards you, there is a reason why these blessings, these helps, these answers to prayers are coming.

So how, in our second point, how God's people are to perceive the love of God toward them. We're told in our text, the reason, hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us. Read in another place, God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. As you're looking back before our life, before we knew the Lord, looking back to where the Lord is first, initiating and beginning salvation. But your question, my question would be, well that's all very well to say that we perceive it because He laid down His life for us, but how did we know, how do we know that He laid down His life for us.

It indeed is looking back. We think of Jeremiah 31. Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. God instigating it, everlasting, but then there's a link. Therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. And so that which is before our life, God instigating it, It is realized in drawing, or our election is known by calling. Give diligence to make your calling and election known. All God's people are elect, but it is known by when He begins to draw them, when He begins to call them.

The Lord says in John 6, that none come unto me except the Father which sent me. Draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day." And so it is in that calling, hearing like Samuel in a way, though it may not be in an audible voice like he did, but being drawn to the Lord, drawn to His ways, drawn to His people, And it may be the Lord does shine upon acts of love that He's shown towards us before we had any knowledge of Him. So if we've been brought to feel our sin, brought to feel our need of the Lord, brought to seek the Lord, and we're looking at us, the Lord, are we amongst those of whom the Lord has loved? with an everlasting love. And it may be the Holy Spirit will take you back in your life, perhaps to childhood, and through as you're growing up, and you point to one thing after another, maybe where your life has been preserved, or where the Lord has used timings to bring about providences, and you've seen that there's been a hand that guided, a hand that overruled, When you didn't even pray for it, didn't even ask for it, we're not even mindful of it. And it's as these things are brought to remembrance, these things are being added up as things where we begin to perceive God's goodwill and favour toward us.

You might say one way of perceiving was where we had Manoa. and his wife, Samson's parents, when the angel appeared to them and Manoah realised it was an angel of God sending up in the flame of the sacrifice and not appearing to them again, he said that we have seen an angel of God and therefore we will die because no man can see God and live.

But his wife saw it in a different way, exactly the same situation. But she said that if the Lord were pleased to kill us, why would he have shown us these things? Why would he have told us such things as this at this time, that they should bear a son, and that he should be a Nazirite from the womb? And in her speaking, she was able to allay his fears. So looking at those things that were done and that was said, she put a positive, a right aspect on them. She could see it as the Lord's blessing.

He was looking at it, we shall die. She was looking at it, no, this is a token for good. This is the difference of being able to rightly perceive. It's not reading something into it that's not there. It's seeing what really is there, noticing one's goodwill toward us.

With Moses, he wanted to see the glory of the Lord. And the Lord said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee in the way. When the Lord is a shepherd, he puts forth his sheep he goeth before them. And that's good when we see that in Providence, when we see it in coming into the house of God, hearing the word of God. Perhaps obstacles, hindrances taken away, the text comes right where we are, it helps us, it's a blessing to us, it's an answer to prayer. And we perceive the Lord has gone before in this matter. These are things where we can see the Lord's hand in a personal way to us.

In Psalm 107, we have in that Psalm four or five times where the people of God are, while they're going away from the Lord, they're abhorring all manner of meat, sometimes in foolishness, in darkness, And they're brought down, there's none to help. Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saveth them out of their distresses. Then are they quiet, because they are glad. Then he bringeth them to their desired haven. You see, the blessings that come again and again in answer to prayer, through their own works, their own ways, their own rebelliousnesses, they are brought down low. But in that low state, they're brought to prayer, and the Lord delivers them again and again.

And at the end of that psalm, we read, who so is wise and will observe these things, even they shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord. Now, he might be his children, be given some beautiful present or something very nice from a parent, And you say, what a loving parent, how kind this parent is.

But if they then had done something wrong, that parent chastises them and smacks them. And probably there's more love in that than in the gift that was given. Because in that chastening, there's a love of a father. And to keep those children from much evil, it's a mark in a spiritual way that God gives to all his children. They're all chastened and corrected when they go out of the way.

But it's observing these things, understanding the loving kindness of God. It's not just a loving kindness that's on the surface. It needs to be understood and realized. And very often with the Lord's people, Things that in providence seem cross providences, illnesses, afflictions, tribulations, and trials, yet God is using them for good. We know that all things work together for good, to them that love God, to them that are the called according to his purpose. In earlier days, myself, I could see the Lord going before in providential ways that were for my good.

And it was after I was called. And I got used to, as it were, seeing answers to prayer and helps. But then I had experiences where there was no temporal good whatsoever. There was only damage and afflictions and trials. Then I saw mercies mixed with it, and spiritual blessings. And when the realization that God brought me into things and out of things, not for any temporal good whatsoever, but just for my soul, that was so strengthening to my faith, so encouraging to see that the Lord cared for my soul.

The Lord says, fear not them that kill the body, and after that there's nothing more they can do. But fear him who hath power after he hath killed to cast both body and soul into hell. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

And all the time he is putting us away from earth things and to look for heavenly things. Notice that. Perceive that. in your life, where the Lord works to put sometimes a blight on earthly things, but how has he turned it about? Is it used in his hand to make us to think and pray and to look for heavenly things?

God's people, they are pilgrims on the earth, strangers, And we read in Hebrews, they that say such things declare plainly, they seek a country. So again, it's a perception where God has made us as a stranger, as a pilgrim, this world is not my world. Or as the Lord says, they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I've given them thy word, the world hath hated them.

And you perceive that that is the case. But is there a perceiving that, joined with that, there's really a testimony? We seek a country. We seek a city that is yet to come, as in Hebrews 11, 13 to 16. We think of how it was with Ruth. In the book of Ruth, Ruth coming out of Moab, not knowing the customs, the ways of the children of Israel, but she loved her mother-in-law Naomi and then she desires to go and to glean and she is directed by God to the fields of Boaz and we read in Ruth chapter 2 how that then she when she came back from her gleaning in verse 19 Her mother, in verse 18, her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned and she brought forth and gave to her that she had reserved after she was sufficed.

And her mother-in-law said unto her, where hast thou gleaned today? Where wroughtest thou? Blessed be he that did take knowledge of thee. How did she know that? Because she knew what normally would be gleaned. She knew that she had gleaned more than what was usual.

No doubt Ruth hadn't really picked this up, but Naomi did. And so then she showed her mother-in-law with whom she had wrought and said, the man's name with whom I wrought today is Boaz. And then Naomi said unto her daughter-in-law, blessed be he of the Lord, who hath not left off his kindness to the living and to the dead. Naomi said unto her, the man is near of kin unto us, one of our next kinsmen. So Naomi, she perceived that Ruth had found favor because of what she brought. And then she perceived the Lord's favor towards her. and Ruth, because Boaz was a near kinsman. She knew that. Ruth didn't know that. And here she had a token for good. She'd come there saying, call me not Naomi Pleasant. Call me Mara. That is bitter. But here she had a token that the Lord was with her. Was with her back here in Bethlehem. And Ruth beforehand as well.

She'd gleaned, and then when Boaz came in and spoke to her, and she couldn't work out why. She says, why have I found grace in thy eyes, that thou shouldest take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger? And Boaz had spoken kindly to her. And he said, hearest thou not my daughter's verse 8?

Go not to glean in another field, neither go from hence, but abide here fast by my maidens. Let thine eyes be on the field that they do reap, and go thou after them. Have I not charged the young men that they shall not touch thee? When thou art athirst, go unto the vessels, and drink of that which the young men have drawn. And that's when she was so humbled. Why? Why have I found grace? You read afterwards how Boaz was letting her glean amongst the sheaves, commanded his young men to let those handfuls of purpose down, and there Naomi seeing this of Ruth.

These are these tokens for good. These are these things that are observed. And then there's a gradual perception, a realization. The Lord is for me, not against me. The Lord has called me. He is drawing me. He is for me. I do have the Lord loving me.

These things flow out of love to my soul. our text, hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us. Now we know this, where the Lord shows special favours, spiritual favours, and uses providences, sicknesses, troubles, blessings, to draw a people to himself, It is because He has loved them with that everlasting love. Therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee and joined to that is because He has paid their debt. He has settled their debt. He's paid at Calvary what they owed. Every blessing, we need to really know this, that it comes to us through Jesus' precious blood. They are purchased blessings. They are purchased favours. that the Lord should do this.

Yes, the Lord is good to all, his tender mercies are over all his works. He causes his sun to shine, the rain to rain upon the just and unjust, him that serveth him and him that serveth him not. He is the saviour of all men, especially of them that believe. There is a common grace that everyone, wicked, And those who are righteous, they partake of the Lord's hand.

You can't go into the hospitals of this land and say, if you've got a six-bed ward and one of them is a believer, that, well, God is healing that one in answer to prayer, but the other five, well, it's a good job that they believe in luck and chance, isn't it?

Otherwise, they wouldn't be healed. No, there's not two forces in the world. They were all healed, those that were by the same God, the same hand. It's just that they didn't ask for it. And when they were healed, they didn't give thanks for it. And their affliction, all that they've been through, never led them to the Lord, never brought them to pray, never brought them to seek. That's the difference.

And last judgment day, the Lord shall say to them, you have the same blessings as my child. And they prayed for it. And I answered. And they gave thanks. But you didn't ask, and I still healed you. When you were healed, you didn't return to give thanks.

That's the difference. Those things that work together for good are used to draw to the Lord. And that soul that is mindful of their state, mindful of their sin, needing a saviour, they begin to perceive through these things, a scriptural perception that this is the Lord calling them. This is the Lord working for their good, drawing them to himself, using these things. So instead of looking for one great blessing, one great appearing of the Lord for them, there's a gradual awareness. and are looking at not just one instance of which could be mistaken, but over a longer period of time, one thing after another. And that is a much more worth.

You know, you children with your parents, you don't need your parents to tell you that they love you or to assure you that you are their children. You know you get your meals. You know you get your care. You know you have your home. You have that evidenced day by day. And it's over a long period of time. And what strength that that is. And so it is in a spiritual way.

With God, with his children, when he brings them into his living family, they partake of those blessings of a child. And they looked to the Lord to provide and to help them and to appear for them. And they brought also, as it says here, he laid down his life for us. One thing that will be in those things perceived is how one is drawn to Christ, to Calvary. I, if I be lifted up above the earth, will draw all men unto me. Drawn to the fountain. drawn to the blood, drawn to where those blessings come from. You know, we spoke of Naaman. When Naaman was healed, where did he go? Did he go straight back to his own country? He didn't. He went straight back to the Prophet. And he was full of gratitude and full of thanks. That's another real token as well.

What shall I render unto the Lord? for all his benefits toward me. I take the cup of salvation. That's a beautiful idea, isn't it? To take the cup of salvation. Sometimes I think of that. I think of a picture of a cup and what is put into that. One help, another help, another answer to prayer. All of these things that are building up as a whole lot of evidence and tokens that one on their own might not mean much, but when you get a lot all put together is the cup of salvation. And you take those things and return to the Lord with thanksgiving and with praise. God's people, they are to perceive the love of God towards them. And sometimes in those things that they perceive are blessings, spiritual blessings. good hearing times, times when their hearts are warmed under the Word, times when they're warned, times when they're corrected, times when they're helped through the Word.

All of those things, say, gather those things together. And sometimes the Lord might highlight the blessings by removing them for a little while, just whereas we think it's been Just natural that we could go up and down the word with sweet delight and enjoy it and love it and be able to pray and have answers to prayer. And the Lord withdraws for a while and you wonder, why am I so hard and cold? Why is the word so dry? Why can't I see any attraction in it? Why don't I delight in it? Why am I not helped through the ministry? And there's great searchings of heart through it as to why these things are. Well, there might be, isn't it?

The Lord drawing us to search our lives and to search what things we've been doing or not doing. But it may also be the Lord is showing us that wasn't just natural. It wasn't just you. It was my blessing. And then when he comes again and softens the heart and makes his word precious and lovely again, then you realize it and value it more than you did before.

It's good when the Lord makes known that these things have proceeded from Him, and when we see that, then perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. Well, our third point, an additional way that we may realise or be assured of our, that the Lord is our God and we are his people.

We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. John in these epistles, he speaks a lot about love. He speaks a lot about the brethren. He joins together the God that begets his children, his people, that if we love Him, we are to love those that are begotten of Him. And it will be like we read in the third chapter there, we know that we have passed from death unto life, verse 14, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.

By nature, I certainly knew it, in teens and uncalled. I didn't love the people of God because they were the people of God. Yes, there were some of them, they were lovely people. I loved them as friends, as relatives, as people to be with. But not because I saw that they were the Lord's people.

Not for the Lord's sake. Sometimes it may be that we have one Lord's people They're a very difficult character, very hard to get on with. And we must say that we love them for the truth's sake. We love them in the Lord, but we find them hard to get on with. And the late deacons in Melbourne said that also. One of the Lord's servants, a long while ago, was pastor there in Melbourne. He said, I loved him for the truth's sake. But he had those things were hard to get on with.

And it's good to discern that our love to a person is as we see God's grace in them or perceive in them that the Lord has wrought in their hearts. And we're seeing the grace of God as a different thing than a natural thing. Well, here he says, if the Lord has laid down his life for us, then we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren He gives a very practical example in verse 17. Whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him. My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. That is the context. Some of you may remember me telling the account of Ron Jealous years ago, and when the Lord impressed upon me the meaning of this word.

When he was in William Harvey Hospital, and I really wanted to go and to see him. He had not made profession or anything, but he'd had a hip operation, and then after that he had a stroke, ended up in Pilgrim Home. But that Saturday, I can remember the part of the road driving to William Harvey Hospital. And it felt like to me that I had a heavy rubber band that was fixed to Cranbrook.

And the further I got away, it was trying to pull me back. Because I had a lot of things I had to do on that Saturday. and preparing for the Lord's Day and things that were in my life to do. So I wanted to go and see him, but I didn't want to, I was struggling to let go of the things back here.

And the Lord dropped this word into me. We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. And that so changed everything. He told me this, I had my life I was to lay that down, not do that. I was to go to him. He also told me this. He was one of the brethren. He hadn't made profession. I'd seen him sitting in the seats here in the chapel, eyes streaming with tears, lest under the word. But the Lord told me and that he was one of the brethren. It was through him going into Pilgrim Home 24 years ago. But I began to go in there and have ministered there over all these years. There was a real providential blessing in that. Later on, his wife was in that home too.

But it's when the Lord gives a real practical interpretation of the word, and there's many aspects we could lay down our lives. I'll mention one. You know, some people, the idea of giving up time for the Church of God, the House of God, or making room for that in their lives, a difficult thing. But, you know, if we are called and called to make a profession and to join a church and be part of that church, part of that family, to spend time with them, responsibilities with them.

In one sense, it is laying down our lives for the brethren. We are saying, my life that I now have that is outside of the church, I lay that down and I'm going to join. with the brethren because I love them. And now my life that was my life is now going to be identified and joined with the people of God. And this flows out as a further way of assuring our hearts because there's that love and desire to be with the brethren.

The apostles, when they were brought before the council, being let go, They went unto their own company. And some of us, we can think back years ago, and if that were said of us, we went to our own company, we wouldn't be here. We'd be somewhere completely different. That would have been our company. And it's a blessed thing when we desire that our company be the company of the Lord's people, and to walk with them, and to be part with them. I believe that is another way of really perceiving. And of course, earlier on in this chapter, it's set down as a clear way of knowing. We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. It's lovely to feel it, you know.

Again, I'll mention another occasion. We used to have the annual prayer meetings with the ministers at Clifton. And one time leaving there and driving home on the M1. And it just comes so unexpectedly, just flooded over me. Oh, how I love the brethren. Those brethren I've been with, my fellow ministers. And the tears flowed. I found it hard to keep driving. But again, it was a time such to be remembered. It wasn't consciously. brought up, it's suddenly overwhelming, a real love to the brethren. It doesn't often happen like that. That's what makes those times so special.

But may we have some evidence of it and some way of saying that we do perceive the love of God toward us. We have perceived that the Lord has done these things in our He's brought these things to pass. He's helped us. He's answered prayer. And may we come in with this verse.

Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. Don't you think the Lord will make known to those of his dear people that He does love them, that He has laid down His life for them, there's some evidence of that shown in their lives, their will. And if that is so in your life and in mine, the Lord give us, give you to perceive it. Amen.